CAMDEN, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - Though New Jersey can offer medical aid in dying, not just anyone can come to the state to seek a doctor's help to end their life.
That was the ruling of federal judge Renee Marie Bumb on Sept. 18 in a challenge to the state's residency requirement. A person with a terminal illness and only months to live can, with the assistance of a doctor, die with dignity but must be a resident of New Jersey.
Challenging that requirement was a group of terminal patients and physicians. Bumb found that because the U.S. Supreme Court found in 1997 that there is no fundamental right to medical aid in dying (MAID), states can craft their legislation how they see fit.
New Jersey passed its law in 2019 and is one of 10 states to allow MAID. Bumb wrote her court was the first nationwide to rule on whether a residency requirement is constitutional.
"At its core, the issue is whether the Constitution requires a state to extend to nonresidents a non-fundamental privilege that it affords its own residents," Bumb wrote.
"Notwithstanding a terminally ill person's genuine desire to access medical aid in dying, this Court concludes that the answer is no, the Constitution does not so require."
Bumb added the residency requirement "makes sense" and is rationally related to government objectives.
"One such objective is to shield from out-of-state liability physicians who prescribe end-of-life medication and other individuals who assist terminally ill patients in dying," she wrote.
"As specified, the Act aims to 'guide health care providers and patient advocates who provide support to dying patients.' Among other things, it provides them with broad civil and criminal immunity so long as they comply with the terms of the statute. Assisted suicide otherwise remains a crime."
Those who come to New Jersey for end-of-life medication could possibly take it back to their home states for their final moments, opening those who helped in New Jersey to civil and criminal penalties.
"(T)he Court is not persuaded that such a risk is speculative," Bumb wrote. "Delaware and Pennsylvania do not limit the territorial scope of their criminal liability to conduct that occurs within each state.
"If the result of the criminal activity occurs in the state - i.e., self-administration of end-of-life medication that a New Jersey physician may prescribe - Liability could obtain."
The decision shoots down arguments the law violates the Privileges and Immunities Clause, the dormant Commerce Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.
In Pennsylvania, a man has gone to federal court making a claim his continued existence violates constitutional protections against slavery. In that state, death-with-dignity legislation continues to sit idle in the legislature.